Oakwood Lake Manteca Waterslides

[COASTER FREAK 11]

So the park was paved over and turned into a man-made lake?

 

I dont think so. Actualy, I think the island was readed, thats why it looks diffeent. The park was located in the bottom right corner of the satalite view of the current area.

 

The picture above really helped make sense of the area and what they did, thanks Sam!

[jignrig]

Main Slides

#1: The Plunge (Second half of the slide was known as Waterfall and the splashdown was moved from the lake to next to Turbulence)

#2: Flash Flood (Featured a large almost plunger on top of it that would buildup water, and then discharge it and shoot you down. Unfortunately the thing used to push so much water was broken after a few years, and never replaced.)

#3: Turbulence

#4: Subway (longest underground section)

#5: High Tide (ran parallel to Subway)

#6: Cyclone

#7: Out of Bounds (ran parallel to Cyclone)

 

An old brochure posted here indicates 9 of these slides, but even counting Waterfall as the 8th slide, there is still one missing. The brochure I saw this in was from 1990. Do you know anything more?

 

There were only 7 slides in the main slide complex. There were two small slides that went into Castaway Bay. Makes up the 9 slides. the second half of the plunge was known as "waterfall" because when you came to the end of the slide you fell into the lake. Depending on the elevation of the lake at the time you could fall up to 4 - 6'. Slide # 2 use to be a second cement slide then later became "flash flood" Flash flood was never really broke. It was a poor design that was taken out of service. It didn't really have enough water to push someone down the slide and had very few riders.

 

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3 Turbo Tube (innertube slides). From what I heard, these were known as disco slides because they gave the effect of having a disco balls in them, however this was more of a trick of the lighting from the outside with the semi transparent green tubing (Waterworld here has slides that gave this effect as well) instead of an actual light.

 

I also heard that The Plunge, Flash Flood, and one of the Turbo Tubes shut down a few years before the park closed. Do you know when or why this happened?

 

The Plunge was the original cement slide and took a lot of maintenance to keep it open. Being cement, it would tend to take skin of toes if the rider didn't keep their feet up. It was opened and closed at different times depending on the number of guests in the park. It was open the final year.

 

There was three original turbo tubes. In later years the top of slide three was connected to the bottom of slide two. Made for one heck of a ride and was actually my favorite in the park.

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Jet Scream. Basically early innertube speed slides which consisted of two parallel tunnels that you could go down. The first part was enclosed and the final part was open. You rode down it, then it leveled out, and then it again went downward into the splash pool.

 

That's correct!

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As for the innertube Rapids Ride, it originally had two rivers, but they cemented off one of the sides in the early 90's due to staffing issues.

 

A lot of the rides in the park were the first rides of their kind. The brown family designed the first figerglass waterslide and had the patent on it. The original rapids was a learing experience. Very poor design and didn't flow very well. The second one was built using part of the first one with a far better design. They weren't ran together.

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I saw a video (I think it was on mysapce) of V-Max, and it looked like one of the much larger speed slides we have here in Denver, only with the top of the drop enclosed. I can't seem to find the video, so if you have some pictures that would be cool.

 

The top of V-Max was enclosed because it was to steep. You had the potential of coming out of the slide. We use to do what we called "shooting the tube" where we would stand up in the begining pool and grab the safety bar with both hands. jump in the air and pull yourself forward feet first into the tube. When doing this you throw yourself so far into the tube that you would freefall down the slide without touching anything until you got to the bottom. (not safe or something we let guests do)

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I see the arial photo of the park when it was open. Unfortunalty I'm not very good with photo editing to where I can draw lines to point stuff out like I've seen in other photos posted on here.

 

I'll see what I can come up with.

[Angry_Gumball]

I'm sure the V-Max would probably scare the living #### out of me. I was scared enough coming down one of the speed slides at Waterworld in Concord. The height and such low walls and the initial amount of airtime don't mix too well...maybe some higher walls? And the video was on myspace, the dude comes down on his back, head first...seems quite dangerous.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=158725

[Goliath513]

^ Yeah that's the video. I can imagine how awesome that slide must have been since I've ridden basically the same thing at Waterworld in Denver. Too bad V-Max didn't get brought up to CGA as well. Would have made the park suck less than it does.

 

As for the guy riding down the slide head first, he was probably an employee. Nobody in the right mind would let a guest do that.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing what more you have on this park!

[sfmmrules!]

Wow V-Max looked like a great slide & would have been a perfect fit for Boomerang Bay. Why couldn't have Boomerang Bay gotten all the slides from Manteca instead of just 2? That's not fair. What happened to the other slides? I can't believe I never got to do the Manteca waterslides-it looks like it had a great collection of slides. I was w/my parents when we drove by many times & each time my mom was like ok were almost to the Manteca slides. I still can't believe I never went there!!! Why isn't there any pictures of all the slides? I wish there were more pictures.

[Goliath513]

Wow V-Max looked like a great slide & would have been a perfect fit for Boomerang Bay. Why couldn't have Boomerang Bay gotten all the slides from Manteca instead of just 2? That's not fair. What happened to the other slides? I can't believe I never got to do the Manteca waterslides-it looks like it had a great collection of slides. I was w/my parents when we drove by many times & each time my mom was like ok were almost to the Manteca slides. I still can't believe I never went there!!! Why isn't there any pictures of all the slides? I wish there were more pictures.

You can see the tube sections of the original slides rotting away in a field of someone's backyard just northeast of Oakwood Lake along Highway 120. Not sure what happened to the Turbo Tubes, Jet Scream, and V-Max though.

 

 

 

 

What is that slide at the top of the picture behind all the kids? Looks too small to be Turbo Tube or Jet Scream, yet does not look like any of the ones in the main slide complex.

 

 

What's that thing behind the fence in the top left corner?

[jignrig]

Wow V-Max looked like a great slide & would have been a perfect fit for Boomerang Bay. Why couldn't have Boomerang Bay gotten all the slides from Manteca instead of just 2? That's not fair. What happened to the other slides? I can't believe I never got to do the Manteca waterslides-it looks like it had a great collection of slides. I was w/my parents when we drove by many times & each time my mom was like ok were almost to the Manteca slides. I still can't believe I never went there!!! Why isn't there any pictures of all the slides? I wish there were more pictures.

You can see the tube sections of the original slides rotting away in a field of someone's backyard just northeast of Oakwood Lake along Highway 120. Not sure what happened to the Turbo Tubes, Jet Scream, and V-Max though.

 

 

 

 

What is that slide at the top of the picture behind all the kids? Looks too small to be Turbo Tube or Jet Scream, yet does not look like any of the ones in the main slide complex.

 

I think it's one of the first slides in the main slide complex. The landscaping and bottom pools of the slides were changed over the years.

 

 

What's that thing behind the fence in the top left corner?

 

That "thing" in the background is actually part of the cranes used in the sand quarries. It's several hundred yards behind the kiddie slide but big enough to appear in the pictures.

 

Sorry I have been away. My grandmother passed away. I will return very soon with more information.

[Twister II]

I'm sure the V-Max would probably scare the living #### out of me. I was scared enough coming down one of the speed slides at Waterworld in Concord. The height and such low walls and the initial amount of airtime don't mix too well...maybe some higher walls? And the video was on myspace, the dude comes down on his back, head first...seems quite dangerous.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=158725

Welcome to what lifeguards do when the park is empty.

 

We always were trying to find new and fun ways to go down the slides. On a kickboard, headfirst on stomach, on a lifeguard tube, two at a time, etc. We were a pretty risky staff! The favorite was always headfirst on a kickboard because you would 'skip' across and down the run out all the way til the end.

On a kickboard.

Yes, the right way.

[KrakenKing]

^ Dork

[josephine's mom]

Wow! Talk about old memories. I grew up litteraly down the street from this place. I lived on W. Yosemite Rd or hwy 120. We had summer passes and everything. During the school year my bus took me right by it every day to pick up and drop off kids that lived in turtle lake. I remember it used to flood all the time over there and half the time the bus couldn't drop kids off. I was so sad when it closed down. I loved the v max and just about every other slide there. I just remember every day on that bus seeing the water slides and counting down the days till summer when I could go ride again. So sad that operating costs were to high. They really could have raised the prices. I remember it only be like $20 to ride all day or something like $60 for a summer pass. For how many water slides they had it was a great value. Espcially for my working mom needing somewhere for me and my sister to go and not get into trouble. It's crazy to see how the waters took over again and how sad to see the rotting pieces of the slides. I still get that jingle stuck in my head from time to time. Manteca waterslides! I just loved that place and we had friends that lived in the mobile home park at turtle lake so we would get to watch the firework show put on for free and have a bbq. Those were the best summers of my young life. Well so sad I won't get to take my daughter there. It would have been cool to tell her how I used to pal around there as a kid. Loved seeing the old pictures and sad I don't have any of my own.

[Goliath513]

It's funny how this keeps getting bumped randomly over the years. Since you brought it up, here's an album (not mine though) with a bunch of great pictures from around the park and slides found from searching again today.

 

 

V-Max looked like an awesome slide.

[Fire2box]

Why are you bumping this Fire2box?

 

 

Well I'm in/from Stockton CA and was just watching my local news and it seems waterslides MAY come back to Manteca. Also since golfland in Stockton closed down and got demolished, we lost it's waterslides, not that they looked trustworthy at all.

 

Anyways heres a link or two explaining the situation.

 

http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/archive/12417/ (Dated back in march, 2010)

 

I would post another one by News 10 (ABC) but they haven't posted anything about it on news10.net But they are doing a video story of it on the 11 PM news tonight Dec 26th, 2010. Of course if the city does get waterslides again it won't be at the original location,. Since it's underwater now due to oakwood lake expansion. It was pretty sad to see the local waterpark close down too. hopefully waterslides can/will come back and perhaps manteca can be the first city on this side of the USA to have a auqaloop.

 

 

Edit: I watched the news program last night and Great Wolf Lodge wants to open a resort in Manetca. The plot of land in question is currently around the city's Costco. I am pretty amazed Great wolf lodge wants to open one here in this area and not closer to say Yosemite where the place would be a very natural fit. There aren't really any good hotel's up there and great wolf lodge would of course fit with the whole theme of Yosemite and whatnot.

 

This also presents a problem since great wolf lodge is a hotel/indoor water park. Normally access restricted to guests of the hotel from what I understand. So if manetca city's concuil accpects this, then Great Wolf Lodge might finally open one of it's indoor water parks to the public or they might build a outside water park. Either way, I don't think great wolf lodge will really buy a auqaloop and if all goes as planed, this won't be open until 2013 or maybe 20014. Considering how wacky local politics is I am sure they would rather have another mall/stripmall then a Great Wolf Resort.

 

 

Also News 10 fially put the story online, with the video as well. http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=113890&catid=2

[man]

Really old bump, but going over this I am wondering a few things thinking back to my visit here. I was fortunately able to come in the last year

 

If the old workers here hopefully he knows my answers

 

1. I only remember 8 mat slides, and the two in the ground which where overgrown and old where closed. If I am not mistaken there was another one that was taken out before I got there?

 

2. How tall was v-max exactly?

 

3. When I heard about the park shutting down I was told it was due to it takeing water from the lake for the slides and they couldn't keep doing that or install water filters on the old slide. Was there any truth to that?

 

I remember the staff where awesome at this park I was able to run around the mat area for an hour plus and it truly was a classic water park experience..... The best part are the cameras in the slide and the employees that tell you not to swear

 

As far as the guy going down V-max I could not imagine even throwing myself down that thing (vs. gently) let alone go backwords. The tower would move gently as you made it to the top it was one of the SCARIEST slides ever, but the most amazing water park experience. I guess the best part about V-max's high was nothing else around it was very tall so you could see very far off in the distance from the top before plunging down.

[Goliath513]

To echo what I've figured out...

 

1. I thought there were only 7 mat slides. The two closed ones were Plunge and Flash Flood. The 5 remaining ones were Subway, High Tide, Turbulence, Cyclone and Out of Bounds. There might have been one removed earlier, but I've never found anything on it.

 

2. My guess is V-Max was 70 to 80 ft high since it looks about the same size as the similar speed slides at Denver's Water World.

 

3. I have never heard that reason. Rising operational costs are what I hear killed the park. They did however use lake water for the slides early on in the park's life.

[Diane_in_h2o]

I so remember this place like yesterday! Every summer my girlfriends and I would frequently visit this place and spends hours on the water rides! We would ALWAYS go with our clothes on, which made it even more fun, as this was one of the few, if not only, water parks that did not have any of the stict dress code regs as they do today.

I so miss this place, but I'll always cherish the memories!

~Diane Vierra

Santa Monica, CA.

 

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Edited March 7, 2011 by jedimaster1227

[D00mM4r1n3]

Was recently reminiscing about Manteca Waterslides and came across this forum, wanted to add a little extra info:

 

The river rapids would split into 2 paths, the left path had a rather steep waterfall that would knock riders off of their tubes. I remember this part in particular since the lifeguard would always get angry at me for taking too long to get back on my tube. The right path was a slower path with 2-3 whirlpools that were a great way to extend your ride. Both paths eventually merged again just before the final somewhat steep slide down to an exit pool. I would always fall off here too and get trapped underwater a few seconds by the rushing water.

 

I recall there was a battle tank attraction to the right of Rampage. Not sure if it was only there for 1 year or not. Basically the tanks were fiberglass bodies on a driveable platform. One person got to be the driver and the other operated the turret which fired rubber squash balls. The tanks had targets on them and if you hit a target it disabled that part of the tank (turret/engine).

 

Sorry I don't have any photos, never thought to bring a camera to a waterpark. I went here 3-4 times in the early 90's and would stay at the campground and spend the day on the slides. Rampage was always my favorite, especially the cute girls that always wanted to race!